Pope Francis remembered by IOC president Thomas Bach; credited for inspiring Olympic refugee team
To be eligible, athletes needed to be elite competitors in their respective sport and be refugees in their host country, recognised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The first refugee Olympic team included 10 athletes - six competing in athletics, two in swimming and two in judo. The team expanded to 19 athletes for the next edition of the Games, before a 37-strong team was selected for last year's event in Paris.
In 2024, the refugee Olympic team secured its first medal when Cindy Ngamba secured bronze in the women's middleweight boxing event.
Bach, who steps down in June and will be succeeded by Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry, said he was grateful for Francis' support throughout his 12-year papacy.
'His support for the peace and solidarity mission of the Olympic Games and the refugee initiatives of the IOC has been unwavering,' said Bach.
'I got to know His Holiness as a very pensive intellectual who was humble and had a very good sense of humour.
'His deep passion for sport and the Olympic values was always obvious.'
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Newsroom
43 minutes ago
- Newsroom
Māmā Kells raises the bar for women in weightlifting
Sport has been a constant in Kelly Ihaka-Pitama's life. As a teenager, she was a talented shot put and discus thrower, competing against world champion Beatrice Faumuina. She rose to Commonwealth Games level, but never got the chance to compete at a Games. Instead, Ihaka-Pitama studied sports science and worked in the sporting industry until she was 22, when she met her future husband. They bought a home and travelled, then Ihaka-Pitama began a successful career in freight forwarding and logistics. But sport was never far from her mind, and she started coaching athletics and netball. At 40, Ihaka-Pitama fell ill with a tumour in her thyroid. After surgery, she joined a gym, started doing CrossFit and was soon hooked on weightlifting. 'I love the sport. It's been a whirlwind relationship that's gone from zero to 100,' she says. 'I wish I'd found weightlifting at 16.' She still competes in lifting and is the current New Zealand champion in her 45-49 age group, holding national masters records in two weight divisions, competing out of the Papatoetoe Weightlifting Club. 'I'm the oldest lifter at the club, and I get called 'Māmā Kells',' says the 50-year-old, of Te Aupōuri descent. 'That's the kind of aura I bring to any space I work in. And it's something that weightlifting was missing.' Kelly Ihaka-Pitama challenged the thinking of those running weightlifting in NZ during her residency. Photo: Thomas Hamill Photography Ihaka-Pitama was working as a team leader in freight forwarding when she got talking to Simon Kent, the president of Weightlifting New Zealand, who also coaches at the Papatoetoe club. With her business background, Kent thought she'd be perfect for the Women in High Performance residency experience – working for weightlifting's national body. 'But I was also studying, working, training and being a mum to my kids,' says Ihaka-Pitama, who was studying health science majoring in integrated health, and had two daughters, aged 21 and 17. 'But then my heart said, 'Yes, I want to give this a go',' she says. 'It took me six weeks to complete the forms… I'm an overthinker. I didn't really know what I was getting into.' Ihaka-Pitama's successful application led to two part-time roles – one as general manager of high performance development at Weightlifting NZ; the other within High Performance Sport NZ. The latter was a chance for Ihaka-Pitama, South Auckland born and raised, to share her local knowledge with the HPSNZ Pathways team for six months, as they explored high performance opportunities in her area. 'I'm grateful I took on this project because it gave me exposure to the high performance system. If I'd gone straight into Weightlifting NZ, I wouldn't have initially understood the HP processes,' says Ihaka-Pitama, who initially had to learn the 'new language' of high performance. 'It was challenging, learning from scratch, but what I learned was invaluable.' It wasn't easy for Ihaka-Pitama hearing that south Auckland athletes in high performance sport were encouraged to leave south Auckland to be better. 'That kind of hurt, because I've been living there my entire life, and there were high performance athletes who had stayed and been successful,' she says. 'But understanding how high performance rolls after seeing it and being amongst it, I get it now.' Ihaka-Pitama's work at Weightlifting NZ, as the sport's first fulltime employee, was a game-changer, Kent says. 'Before Kelly, we had volunteers trying to deliver high performance outcomes,' says the weightlifting performance coach. 'It's often not the glamorous stuff, but stuff that needs to be done that can slip through the cracks. Part of the role was sometimes rolling up your sleeves and helping out at a club competition. 'It's been a massive transition for Kelly. She'd just started coming to the club and had a real enthusiasm for the sport and a willingness to learn. Her logistics background definitely brought the processes we needed.' Kelly Ihaka-Pitama walks through the gym while NZ's top lifters train. Photo: Thomas Hamill Photography Ihaka-Pitama went through a process of figuring out how to lead in weightlifting. As part of the residency, she did the 360-degree leadership assessment that highlighted her strengths, but also 'what I lacked, what I hid behind and ran away from,' she says. She spent six weeks working with Helene Wilson, HPSNZ's Women in High Performance lead, to help her recognise who she was as a leader. 'I discovered why I had reactive tendencies towards a situation, and how I could adapt to a situation in a better way. How to move forward and say, 'Hey, I want to do this' or approaching a coach who may be difficult to work with, or speaking to an athlete who's just missed out on selection,' Ihaka-Pitama says. 'Some of those conversations are quite hard if you don't understand yourself as a leader. 'Understanding who I was contributed to me becoming a better leader, because it became more natural to me and authentic to who I was. I came across as me – Māmā Kells – rather than running away from an issue.' Ihaka-Pitama experienced growing pains working at a truly volunteer sport. But preparing the high performance plan for investment was where Ihaka-Pitama took the lead. 'When weightlifting's leaders met on how we would present the plan, I challenged the thinking to start from scratch, rather than use a strategy from yesteryear,' she says. Another key moment for Ihaka-Pitama came when she travelled with the New Zealand junior weightlifters to Europe in 2024 – spending a week at the training base of the Italian Olympic team, before the IWF world junior championships in Spain. 'The Italians were training on site with us, and I got to witness how other federations train and coach at a high performance level. And I preferred our way,' Ihaka-Pitama says. Her leadership was tested when two young New Zealand lifters failed to reach expectations at the world championships. 'When a couple of our athletes bombed out in the competition, I had to basically pull on every strength I could possibly think of, in order not to fall into a trap of feeling like that person I was at the beginning,' she says. 'It was difficult – I'd never been in such a high-pressured situation – and I needed to be the leader who was sympathetic, but also realistic. This is the athlete's job, they're here to perform and compete, but as a group, how do we wrap support around them, and explain to them it's okay to sit in disappointment and failure?' Olympian Megan Signal (right) has helped Kelly Ihaka-Pitama (left) in lifting leadership. Photo: Thomas Hamill Ihaka-Pitama learned from her roommate on that trip, Olympic and Commonwealth Games athlete Megan Signal, who now runs the Papatoetoe Olympic Weightlifting Club and manages projects for Weightlifting NZ. 'When we had two young girls struggle, Kelly saw very quickly how even after a great build-up, things can suddenly flip. And if you don't nip it in the bud then and there, you're going to have the continuum of a downward spiral,' Signal says. 'One night we all sat down and had an open conversation. Kelly walked away from that with her eyes opened – it was a big learning space for her.' Ihaka-Pitama was then able to take what she'd learned in Europe and apply it to the weightlifting community in New Zealand. 'I took that back home for other athletes who didn't perform to expectations at nationals. And I even used it for myself, when I bombed in competition,' she says. Signal has seen Ihaka-Pitama grow personally during her tenure at Weightlifting NZ, but the sport also benefitted from the skills she already had – athlete experience, logistics and people skills. 'Aside from Kelly's ability to put structures and policy in place, she's got a real warmth when it comes to building relationships with athletes, coaches and officials,' Signal says. 'So many of our high performance and pre-high performance athletes are under the age of 20, and trying to understand a document or a qualification process can be really intimidating. 'And Kelly's warmth just makes that so much easier. Being a woman, and a mum, and having the life experience she has, it's been very good for our sport.' Neroli King agrees. She's Clean Sport Officer for Weightlifting NZ and has known Ihaka-Pitama as a fellow Masters weightlifting competitor. 'We went away as joint team managers to an event, and we worked really well together, because she works so well with people. She has a more community-minded, personal approach with the athletes and she's a great communicator,' King says. 'The sport made huge strides forward during her time there because she's been able to create those connections. Being fulltime, she could concentrate on that.' Having a woman leading the sport's high performance space is a 'no-brainer' for King. 'Weightlifting in New Zealand now has more females than males and we strongly promote women in weightlifting,' says King, who's been part of the IWF Women's Commission. 'Having female leaders in this space is important. 'High performance is not a male-only space. And we're a sport that constantly breaks boundaries. And if that includes having Kelly in a high performance role, when other sports don't, then, yes, we'll own it. But she's also great at what she does.' NZ weightlifting coaches (from left) Gabrielle Peach and Megan Signal, with Kelly Ihaka-Pitama and athlete Medea Jones. Photo: Thomas Hamill Kent says changes are afoot in high performance environments that have so long been a male domain. 'Women have only been competing in weightlifting at the Olympics since Sydney 2000, so we're now at a point, 24 years on, where we're starting to see shifts, including more female coaches,' he says. 'Kelly has brought something quite different – the empathy, the relationship-building – where a male in the role might have said, 'No this is what HP needs to look like'. New Zealand was a little ahead of the curve with the upsurge of female lifters we have coming through, so we had to change our approach. And I think Kelly has really added to that.' As an athlete, Ihaka-Pitama is well aware the end goal in weightlifting is always the same – everyone gets three lifts of snatch, and clean and jerk; everyone wants to better their last lift. But it's what goes on in the background that can make a world of difference to a lifter's performance. 'It's about the things we can do on a day-to-day basis – the planning, and the strategies. It's about how can we actually make this better? What environment can we create for the athletes, so they get exposure to high performance? How can our coaches lead better?' she says. 'Our sport is growing exponentially, so we have to be better. We want Kiwis to choose weightlifting, and we'll also go out to the community and find them.' On a personal level, Ihaka-Pitama's development through the Women in High Performance Sport residency experience has been exponential, too. 'I've had huge personal growth. I'm not the same person I was when I first arrived. I was happy to stay in freight forwarding until I die; now I want to fight to stay in sport, to continue the work I started for the people in the sport, the relationships that have been forged, and what we're building for the next generation,' she says. 'There's a lot of good mahi happening within our sport – we're on the right path.' Now that her residency has finished, Ihaka-Pitama is back working in the freight industry – 'and genuinely happy,' she says. 'My involvement with Weightlifting NZ continues, and it's incredibly rewarding to witness the enduring impact of the past two-and-a-half years. The sport is gaining momentum, and emerging athletes are defying challenges to showcase their talent on a global stage. Their resilience and unwavering commitment inspire a new era of excellence. 'My passion for weightlifting remains resolute – I continue to train, compete and coach. And I don't see that changing anytime soon.' This story originally appeared on the High Performance Sport New Zealand website and is published with permission
Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- Otago Daily Times
Wollaston thanks team-mates for victory
Ally Wollaston celebrates victory at the Tour of Britain in Glasgow. PHOTO: SWPIX New Zealand cycling star Ally Wollaston has sprinted her way to overall victory on the final day to win the Tour of Britain. The Suez FDJ professional went into the last stage of the UCI World Tour race around the streets of Glasgow trailing emerging British star Cat Ferguson, from Movistar, by 3sec. Wollaston revelled in the circuit racing, picking up the time bonuses in winning all three of the intermediate sprints in Glasgow then securing the overall honours with a desperate final sprint for third on the stage. It gave the Kiwi rider the vital last four bonus points to secure the overall victory on general classification. "I'm a little bit overwhelmed," Wollaston said. 'I knew it was a lot to pull off today, winning three sprints and having to still get seconds in the final. I knew the race really had to go my way today. 'I'm so, so immensely grateful for my team-mates for making it pan out that way. I really couldn't have done that on my own out there. 'If you looked at every sprint that I did well in today, I was never isolated. I had a team-mate going into the last corner every single time and it made a world of difference. 'This means the world to me. It's my first World Tour victory in GC. 'Often a lot of the times on the track, I race best in omniums when I'm not leading from the front, and I think I found it super-motivating today not having to defend the win. I find it a lot easier on the mind chasing rather than defending." Wollaston has won two world titles on the track as well as silver and bronze medals at the Paris Olympic Games. While the New Zealand star won a World Tour race in Australia in February, this was her first World Tour GC win in a stage race. "It came down to the last sprint, and there was a moment of doubt halfway through that last lap where I thought 'I just cannot do this today', and my team-mates really helped me pull it together and pulled me to the front for the final.'' The final stage was held on an 8.4km city-centre circuit in Glasgow. — APL
Scoop
2 days ago
- Scoop
‘A Win For The Squad': Young 49er Team Strikes Gold At European Champs
Press Release – Yachting New Zealand Rising Kiwi 49er team Seb Menzies and George Lee Rush struck gold at the European Championships in Greece overnight – their proudest sailing achievement to date and the first major success for New Zealand in the class since a silver medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Menzies and Lee Rush secured overall victory in a strong men's skiff fleet with a day – and the medal race – to spare, having taken the lead on the second day of competition in Thessaloniki. They delivered a calm and consistent performance across the week, notching 11 top-10 finishes from 12 fleet races, before also placing fourth in the double-points medal race to win the regatta by a commanding 54 points. American crew Nevin Snow and Ian MacDiarmid were second, with Uruguay's Hernán Umpierre and Fernando Diz third. New Kiwi pairing Sam Bacon and Blake McGlashan narrowly missed out on the medal race with a 13th-place overall finish – their best result since teaming up last year. Another emerging duo, Mattias Coutts and Oscar Gunn, placed second in the silver fleet (27th overall), while Francesco Kayrouz and Hamish McLaren finished 49th. 'It's been incredibly hot and light all week,' said Lee Rush. 'Lots of waiting, really long days – often getting off the water around 7 or 8pm. It's been pretty taxing in that sense, but we kept things simple and tried to keep doing what we were from the start of the week.' Lee Rush credited their strong position early in the regatta with giving them belief. 'We had a really good second day that put us in the lead, but there was still all of finals racing and the medal race to go, and the points were tight. At that stage, we weren't even sure we'd make the medal race, let alone the podium or a win. But we followed that up with another solid day, and it started to feel possible.' One key improvement, he said, was their starting. 'Our starts have really come along – we've been working hard on it. We've only been competing overseas for the last two years, and it takes time to get comfortable with it [starting] at this level.' Menzies and Lee Rush teamed up in 2021 and found success quickly, finishing third in the 29er at the 2022 youth sailing world championships, followed by gold in the 49erFX at the junior world championships. But the move to the full 49er hasn't been without its challenges. Gaining the necessary weight to stay competitive in stronger breeze has been the biggest hurdle, Lee Rush admits. 'It's been our top priority for a few years now. We're getting there, but it's a long-term thing. It takes time to adjust to the 49er – the racing, the starting, just doing regattas and building experience.' They've been steadily climbing the ranks over the past year. They finished fourth at last year's junior world championships, just days before Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie took 49er silver at the Paris Games. In the Olympic medallists' absence, Menzies and Lee Rush won the 2025 Oceanbridge Sail Auckland in February, placed ninth at the Princess Sofia Trophy in Palma in April, and came 13th at French Olympic Week in Hyères a fortnight later. Their progress owes a lot to the depth and quality of the New Zealand 49er squad, which includes Bacon and McGlashan, Coutts and Gunn, and Kayrouz and McLaren. 'We had a really solid training block back home in the New Zealand summer. There are consistently five high-level boats pushing each other, all working towards the same goal. Not many countries have that kind of depth, and being part of a squad like this makes a huge difference,' he said. 'We're all close. We train together, travel together, stay together overseas. That bond helps, especially when we're pushing each other at such a high level, and it's a big part of why we've got to this point.' Winning the European championships is unquestionably a career highlight. 'Seb's had a lot of success in the 420, but for me, this is definitely number one, and I think he'd put it pretty high up there, too. It's a senior class. It's not a world championship, but it's still a massive win, and we didn't expect to be winning an event like this so soon in our 49er campaign.' The pair have their sights set on the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, but know there's a long road ahead. 'It's a great result; to be able to show that we can perform against other top-level boats and that we can put together a regatta across a full week and keep ourselves consistent and calm under pressure. But it's still just one regatta, and we have a lot to prove,' Lee Rush said. 'More importantly, it's special for the whole squad. We're all working towards the same goal – trying to get one of us to go to the Olympics and perform in 2028. This is definitely a win for the squad as much as it is for us.'
